REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -  The ongoing drought in Indonesia has begun to affect food crops in various parts of the country, as farmers continue to face a shortage of irrigation supplies, which are resulting in a low crop yield, especially for rice. Latest reports suggest that provinces such as West Java, Central Java, Banten, Bengkulu in Sumatra and East Nusa Tenggara have already been adversely impacted by the current drought.

In West Java, the regional government has set aside a fund worth 15 billion IDR for handling drought-related disasters such as shortage of clean water and for plugging the agricultural irrigation deficit. "The government had already predicted that West Java will be one of the nine provinces in the country, which will be prone to drought," Sigit Ujuwalaprana, the head of the West Java Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency said recently.

Meanwhile, anticipating poor harvests in the region, the Agricultural Service of West Java had already announced earlier that for the period of January to July this year, a total of 2,345 hectares of rice fields will fail to produce harvestable rice.

The rice fields in West Java, which failed to yield a harvest, have been found in the districts of Sukabumi, Cinanjur, Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis, Kuningan, Cirebon, Majalengka, Sumedang, Subang, and Purwakarta.

To handle the current drought situation, the provincial and district governments will provide alternative sources water through the construction of wells and clean water tanks, which will receive water from the regional government-owned tap water company PDAM, Ujuwalaprana said.

The parched season has also caused damage to rice fields in Central Java. In the district of Banjarnegara, for example, at least 202 hectares of rice fields have failed to produce a harvest. "Till the first week of August, 202 hectares of rice farms had been affected by the drought. They are located in many sub-districts, including the sub-districts of Susukan, Mandiraja, Banjarmangu, Punggelan, Pandanarum and Kalibening," Head of the Banjarnegara Agricultural Service Dwi Atmadji said.

The drought has not only hurt agriculture in Java, but also in Sumatra and Nusa Tenggara. In East Nusa Tenggara, at least 110 villages out of the 403 spread across 11 districts, are facing serious food scarcity. About 227 others are facing the same situation, but to a lesser degree. 

"We are facing food scarcity because of the drought and uncertain weather conditions that have caused the local people's crops to fail," Alexander Sena, the head of East Nusa Tenggara Food Resilience Affairs said recently.

To tackle the food scarcity threat, the regional government of East Nusa Tenggara is stocking up 1,000 tons of rice. "We are now preparing the stocks, which will be stored in a warehouse of East Nusa Tenggara's national logistics agency Bulog," Frans Salem, the regional government secretary of East Nusa Tenggara said.

In the Sumatran province of Bengkulu, farmers have been hurt by the drought in the last few months, which has affected at least 400 hectares of rice fields. "Even though the dry spells began several months ago and water levels started depleting, it is only in the last one month that we have felt the serious effects of the drought," Ibnu Hafiz, a farmer pointed out.

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